WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. watchdog for protecting consumers against financial abuse on Thursday blamed employees for "leaking" information about cases that he had dropped or was aiming to settle, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.

Mick Mulvaney, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said he should be trusted to decide matters concerning his agency and said employees were undermining his work.

"I recognize that there may well be some (a few? A lot?) of people who work here who aren't happy that I'm working here," Mulvaney wrote in a memo to staff on Thursday afternoon.

In recent weeks, Reuters reported that Mulvaney had dropped a case against a collection agency for payday lenders. Mulvaney's predecessor, Richard Cordray, had hoped to collect $45 million in compensation for borrowers of the company, National Credit Adjusters.

Both of those stories cited sources familiar with the workings of the cases.